USC's Croix Bethune, Lily Perryman Earn Pac-12 Weekly Honors

LOS ANGELES – The Pac-12 released its women's soccer weekly awards on Monday and USC's Croix Bethune was named Offensive Player of the Week, and Lily Perryman was named Defensive Player of the Week.
 
The two helped lead the Trojans to a scoreless draw at defending national champs Stanford and then a 5-0 victory at Cal this past weekend. Five different Trojans have picked up conference weekly honors so far this year, as Bethune and Perryman join Tara McKeown, Penelope Hocking and Kaylie Collins.
 
Bethune led the offensive explosion in Sunday's contest, recording a hat trick and one assist in the lopsided win. Not only was it the first hat trick of her career, but her first collegiate goals overall as well. The sophomore midfielder missed last season win an ACL injury, but has appeared in every game this season. She came into the weekend with two assists on the year before her 7-point game.
 
Bethune scored just six minutes into the game on Sunday, and then followed that up six minutes later with a second strike. She would assist on Penelope Hocking's goal in the 13th minute to make it a 3-0 game and her third goal of the day made it 4-0 in the second half.
 
Perryman led the Trojans' defensive charge in both shutouts, playing the full 110 minutes as a holding midfielder in the scoreless draw. She then saw a full 90 minutes of action in the same spot during the shutout of Cal on Sunday. Perryman also broke through in the scoring column for the first time in her career, as the junior fired home an indirect free kick for USC's fifth goal of the day. The defensive stalwart recorded an assist in the win as well, providing a helper on Bethune's second goal.
 
Perryman and the Trojans have recorded shutouts in each of their last five matches, with USC not having conceded a goal since March 18. The junior transfer has started all but one game this year for the Trojans and currently is third on the team in minutes played.
 
USC closes the regular season this Friday when it hosts No. 3 UCLA for a crosstown showdown at 4 p.m. That game will be televised on the Pac-12 Network.